Sbeiy News

The PAY Foundation for Education and Development has released a report titled "Illegitimate Salaries and Privileges" concerning the presidency and members of the fifth term of the Kurdistan Parliament. The report states, "After the legal term of parliament ended, the presidency and MPs did not give up their privileges, and they continued to receive them illegitimately."

In the report published today, Thursday, May 30, 2024, PAY Foundation announced, "Despite the fact that the fifth term of Parliament carried out the fewest legislative duties and followed the most negligent legal practices during its official term, its members continued to receive salaries and privileges illegitimately after the term ended, with the support or silence of authorities and other institutions."

It continues, "According to the Federal Court's decision on November 6, 2022, the presidency and MPs of the fifth term are no longer considered parliamentarians, and the term officially ended. However, for eight months, they continued to receive parliamentary salaries and benefits. Each parliamentarian has illegitimately received over 30 million dinars."

The total illegitimate salaries received by the parliamentarians during this period amount to 4,265,500,000 dinars (four billion, two hundred sixty-five million, five hundred thousand dinars). The PAY Foundation states, "During this time, we sent multiple notices to the Kurdistan Region Presidency, the Council of Ministers, and other institutions, but they were met with silence, and the practice continued without any action. Some of these parliamentarians have even nominated themselves again and are making pledges to the citizens that they will return those illegitimate salaries, although they received them for eight months at the expense of the people of Kurdistan and have not returned them to the public treasury."

According to the report, "One of the excuses provided by the government and the Ministry of Finance for not reclaiming the illegitimate salaries paid to the parliamentarians was that the salaries had already been disbursed, making it difficult to recover them. Our suggestion was to deduct this amount from the end-of-service bonuses awarded to them during their retirement period, but this was not followed, and they have not returned the money. This week, a sum of 52 million dinars was spent on each parliamentarian as a retirement bonus."

In the extended report about the illegitimate salaries and privileges of the parliamentary presidency and members, the PAY Foundation announced, "After the Federal Court’s decision, none of the presidency and parliamentary members retained any legal status, and therefore all privileges they received under that status should be revoked. However, most of them have not vacated parliamentary apartments and houses, and they continue to use them."

The report further states, "Members of the presidency did not vacate their parliamentary villas after the end of their official term, did not return their vehicles, and used parliamentary guards and staff for their own parties. Recently, some have returned their vehicles after significant pressure, but not the villas. Even the Speaker of Parliament has not returned his villa or vehicles. One member of the presidency had given a luxurious parliamentary vehicle to their spouse, who had no connection to the parliament, and only after heavy pressure returned it this week."

As noted in the report, "Five members who took their parliamentary oath after the end of the term only worked illegitimately for three months during the unofficial period of the parliament. Despite being notified in our report and an official letter sent to the Presidency of the Region, the Council of Ministers, and the Ministry of Finance, they decided to suspend the process. However, letters have been sent again, and the Council of Ministers and the Ministry of Finance are working on the process of placing them on retirement."

Link to the news:

https://www.sbey.net/news/9c2abde8-8227-498d-baae-c7f8260d9010